Like anyone successful in their craft, Brandel Chamblee has earned his fair share of critics over the years. Those numbers have increased most recently due to his staunch criticism of LIV Golf due to the circuit’s direct ties to the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF), but now the Golf Channel analyst has at least started to listen to the other side of the argument, which was delivered by the President of the United States himself.

Shortly after LIV’s inception, Chamblee said that the Saudi-backed league was “funded by a murderous regime” and called the players who were joining the circuit “greedy.”

With the PGA Tour and Saudi PIF announcing a framework agreement for a merger, Chamblee realized in May 2024 that neither the Saudis nor LIV was going anywhere. After fighting anything and everything related to LIV for more than two years, he waved his white flag. Chamblee stated, “It is the better end of the bargain” when discussing the Tour and Saudis coming together.

While Chamblee may have already begun to see that the Saudi’s continued involvement in professional golf was inevitable, he explained conversations with President Donald Trump during a round of golf they played together last year really put things into perspective.

“He was so magnanimous about our differences. At one point, he said, ‘Look, I know you and I differ on this opinion, but hear me out.’ He said, ‘[LIV Golf chairman] Yasir [Al-Rumayyan] loves golf more than you do and more than I do.’ Now, that’s hard to believe because President Trump plays a lot of golf, and I’m crazy about it. But he was serious,” Chamblee said while on-site for Golf Channel the Waste Management Open on Friday.

“My issues were about the human rights concerns about how golf was at some point, I felt, like going to have to apologize for some issue, and he was like: ‘Just look farther into the future, it’s going to be good for Saudi Arabia, it’s going to be good for the PGA Tour, it’s going to be good for LIV,’” Chamblee continued.

“And at the end of the day, did I agree with him? No, but I’ve got to say, he made strong points all day long. He was, I wouldn’t say adamant about it, but he was as opinionated on one side of it as I was. I was happy to listen to him. I was grateful for the conversation all day long at the end of it I will say that he did change my mind.”

It’s Chamblee stating “that he did change my mind” that really stands out from his honest assessment of the situation while reflecting on his conversation with the President. After the clip of Chamblee went viral on social media in golf circles, Chamblee wanted it to be known that he hadn’t changed his position on LIV Golf.

Chamblee’s on-air comments came one day after the PGA Tour shared a statement about a recent meeting it had with President Trump about a deal finally coming together. 

In the statement endorsed by Player Directors Tiger Woods and Adam Scott, as well as Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, the Tour explained that they had asked the President to get involved and were thankful that he took them up on the invitation.

“We asked the President to get involved for the good of the game, the good of the country, and for all the countries involved. We are grateful that his leadership has brought us closer to a final deal, paving the way for reunification of men’s professional golf,” the statement read in part.

In January 2024, the PGA Tour finalized a deal with Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of American billionaires, worth a reported $3 billion, at least, to form a new for-profit entity called PGA Tour Enterprises. With equity being a part of this equation, it appears that a potential merger between the Tour and Saudi PIF would involve the Saudis buying a share of the equity in PGA Tour Enterprises from the Strategic Sports Group.